The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve, created in 1859, and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), created in 1903. The Royal Naval Reserve has seen action in World War I, World War II, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.
HMS London, pennant number C69, was a member of the second group of the County-class heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy. She and her sisters; Sussex, Shropshire, and Devonshire differed from the earlier group of Counties by having a smaller forward superstructure, which was positioned slightly further aft, and little armour plating. HMS London's career spanned over twenty years.
HMS Cavalier is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at East Cowes on 28 March 1943, launched on 7 April 1944, and commissioned on 22 November 1944. She served in World War II and in various commissions in the Far East until she was decommissioned in 1972. After decommissioning she was preserved as a museum ship and currently resides at Chatham Historic Dockyard.
HMS Bronington is a former Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy, named HMS Humber between 1954 and 1958. This mahogany-hulled minesweeper was one of the last of the wooden-hulled naval vessels. Decommissioned in 1988, she was subsequently a museum ship, but sank at Birkenhead in 2016.
The Halcyon class was a class of 21 oil-fired minesweepers built for the British Royal Navy between 1933 and 1939. They were given traditional small ship names used historically by the Royal Navy and served during the Second World War.
The Ton class were coastal minesweepers built in the 1950s for the Royal Navy, but also used by other navies such as the South African Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. They were intended to meet the threat of seabed mines laid in shallow coastal waters, rivers, ports and harbours, a task for which the existing ocean-going minesweepers of the Algerine class were not suited.
HMS Kirkliston (M1157) was a Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy, built by Harland and Wolff and launched on 18 February 1954. In a brief episode from 1956 to 1960 she was temporarily renamed HMS Kilmorey and was assigned to the Ulster division Royal Naval Reserve (RNR).
The following ships of the Royal Navy were assigned the name Calypso, after Calypso, a sea nymph in Greek mythology:
HMSGannet is a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop-of-war launched on 31 August 1878. It became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then loaned as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913. It was restored in 1987 and is now part of the UK's National Historic Fleet.
KD Hang Tuah is a frigate formerly operated by the Royal Malaysian Navy from 1977 until 2018. She is now a museum ship. She was built in the United Kingdom, originally for the Ghana Navy, but was launched and completed as a private venture, before being purchased by the Royal Navy in 1972. She served for five years as HMS Mermaid (F76) before being purchased by Malaysia, where she replaced another ex-British frigate also called Hang Tuah. She became a training ship in 1992 and was refitted to replace obsolete weapons and machinery.
HMS Powderham was one of 93 ships of the Ham class of inshore minesweepers named after villages ending in -ham, in this case Powderham in Devon. She was launched on 27 November 1958 by J. Samuel White & Company Ltd, Cowes and commissioned in 1959. She was allocated pennant number M 2720.
The River class was a class of minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy in the 1980s, designated Fleet Minesweepers (MSF). Operated mainly by the Royal Naval Reserve they were taken out of service in 1990s and sold to foreign navies.
HMS Biter is an Archer-class P2000-type patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy. She is assigned to Manchester & Salford Universities Royal Naval Unit, a Royal Naval Reserve unit based in Manchester. The ship is based at HMS Eaglet, the Royal Naval Headquarters in Liverpool. As part of her sea training programme, she often makes visits to local ports for ceremonial visits or occasions.
HMS Chrysanthemum was an Anchusa-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1917. She received a Le Cheminant chronometer from the Royal Observatory on 15 May 1925. After service in the Mediterranean, in 1938 she became a drill ship with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and then the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). She was sold in 1988 to private owners and subsequently scrapped in 1995.
HMS Windsor Castle was a triple-decker, 102-gun first-rate Royal Navy ship of the line. She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth.
HMS President is a "stone frigate", or shore establishment of the Royal Naval Reserve, based on the northern bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge in Wapping and is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
HMS Dryad was the name ship of the Dryad-class torpedo gunboats. She was launched at Chatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893, the first of the class to be completed. She served as a minesweeper during World War I and was broken up in 1920.
HMS Hodgeston was a Ton-class minesweeper which saw service with the Royal Navy during the Cold War. Built by Fleetlands Shipyard, she was launched on 6 April 1954 and broken up in 1988.
HMS Cambria is the lead Royal Naval Reserve unit in Wales. It is based in the docks of the Welsh capital, Cardiff.
HMS Stubbington was a Ton-class minesweeper which saw service with the Royal Navy during the Cold War. Built by Camper & Nicholson, Portsmouth, she was launched on 8 August 1956. She served as a minesweeper in the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, and in the Royal Navy Reserve under the name HMS Montrose from 1972 to 1976. She then was used for Fishery Protection duties. Stubbington was broken up in 1989.
United Kingdom
